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Anchorage School Board Approves Rightsizing Plan With 7,487 Fewer Students Since 2010
The February 2026 decision targets three elementary closures and multiple program moves as enrollment and maintenance data shape the changes.
How we reported this
The Anchorage School Board approved an updated Rightsizing plan on February 24, 2026, that closes Fire Lake Elementary School, Lake Otis Elementary School and Campbell STEM Elementary School at the end of the 2025-26 school year.
Enrollment across Anchorage schools has fallen steadily for more than a decade, leaving some buildings with far fewer students than they were designed to serve while others face overcrowding. The district now operates 91 schools and operational buildings whose average age is nearly 40 years, and it carries a maintenance backlog that exceeds $1 billion.
Enrollment and program shifts in Anchorage
Student numbers dropped 15 percent between 2010 and 2025, a decline of 7,487 children, according to the district’s Rightsizing page. At the same time, the number of students enrolled in correspondence programs rose 137 percent. These figures guided the board’s choices on which buildings to close and which programs to relocate.
Under the plan, the Montessori program now at Tudor Elementary School moves to Denali Montessori. Non-immersion students from O’Malley Elementary School shift to Huffman Elementary School so that O’Malley can become an alternative French immersion site. Non-immersion students from Government Hill Elementary School move to Inlet View Elementary School while Government Hill converts to an alternative Spanish immersion program. The Outreach program currently housed at Whaley transfers to Benny Benson and SAVE Alternative schools.
Building repurposing and next steps
Fire Lake Elementary will be offered to Eagle Academy Charter School. Lake Otis Elementary will be offered to Rilke Schule German Immersion School. Once Rilke Schule relocates, the former Abbott Loop Elementary building and the Campbell STEM Elementary building are designated excess and returned to the Municipality of Anchorage.
Boundary adjustments for the 2026-27 school year are posted on the district site. Families can review those maps and contact their schools for transfer details before the end of the current academic year.
The source for these figures and the list of closures is the Anchorage School District page at https://www.asdk12.org/hot-topics/fy26-rightsize-asd.